A friend of slain prostitute Hiltina Alexander stuck by his testimony of when he last saw her, when questioned in the Western Cape High Court.
|||Cape Town - A friend of slain prostitute Hiltina Alexander stuck by his testimony of when he last saw her, when questioned in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.
McNiel Jacobs said he and his brother Colin last saw her in Parow, Cape Town, in the early hours of a Sunday morning May 18, 2008.
“The reason why it happened on Sunday morning, why I can remember well 1/8is that 3/8 I was on my way to my mother's house. When I arrived at the house... my mother was already preparing her church clothing and ironing.”
He was testifying in the trial of 48-year-old Johannes Christiaan de Jager, who has pleaded not guilty to the rape and murder of prostitute Hiltina Alexander in May 2008, and the murder of 18-year-old Mpumalanga resident Charmaine Mare in January this year.
Jacobs concluded his testimony last week, but was recalled by the defence on Wednesday.
Sakkie Maartens, for De Jager, was granted the recall to ask the witness about the contradiction in dates between his testimony and two statements he made to police.
In his evidence-in-chief last week, McNiel Jacobs said he saw Alexander get into a white bakkie with a “tall white man” on May 18. He said he and his brother Colin waited for her to return, but they eventually walked home because she never returned.
Colin Jacobs conceded during cross-examination last week that he was not sure whether he last saw her in the early hours of that Sunday or Monday.
On Wednesday, Maartens asked McNiel Jacobs why he was confident enough to testify that it happened on a Sunday morning.
“I know for a fact the date was on a Sunday and I saw that on my mother's calendar. She has that calendar each and every year,” he replied.
McNiel Jacobs made a statement on June 18, 2008 that it happened on a Sunday morning.
Maartens asked why he made another statement on February 25, 2009, saying that he had got the dates wrong and that he actually saw Alexander get into the bakkie early on Monday morning.
Jacobs replied that the police officer who took the statement must have made a mistake.
Maartens asked if he read the statement and was able to read, to which Jacobs replied that his reading skills were poor.
“So the policeman wrote it wrongly? (sic)” the lawyer asked.
Jacobs replied: “It must have been so.”
At one stage, Jacobs revealed he was a tik (methamphetamine) addict at the time Alexander disappeared but was now clean, and a practising Rastafarian.
Maartens attempted to continue that line of questioning, but was shut down by Acting Judge Chuma Cossie, who reminded him that the recall was on a very limited basis.
Jacobs was excused from the stand.
A pathologist who performed Alexander's post mortem was expected to testify on Thursday.
Sapa